Lions

Athlete Apologies: Do They Matter?

CHICAGO – SEPTEMBER 12: Matt Forte #22 of the Chicago Bears is tackled by Aaron Berry #32 and Corey Williams #99 of the Detroit Lions as Landon Johnson #55 closes in during the NFL season opening game at Soldier Field on September 12, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois. The Bears defeated the Lions 19-14. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

The latest comes from former Lions corner back Aaron Berry. He is sorry for pulling a gun on three people and becoming lawless again. He apologized to the fans, the Lions, his teammates and every American citizen not in diapers.

Forgive me for not buying this one.

Didn’t he apologize after his DUI? Didn’t he say he would represent the uniform with pride and this would never happen again? We hear apologies from athletes, time passes; they mess up again and apologize again. They mean nothing. They are just words written by agents and some poor public relations goof.

Didn’t he apologize after telling fans to go back to their broke ass lives? He sure did. But now he is on major transgression number three that we know about. Who knows what he did that we don’t know about.

You know these apologies are fake. I talk to athletes who make English sound like a second language. They write these wonderful apologies that could win literary awards. You know it is not written by them. They apologize because they have to. It is the right thing to do according to PR 101.

I am glad Berry is gone because if he stayed he’d be apologizing for something else before the season is done. And I don’t want to hear it.